3 Ways To Promote Learning At Home For Your Toddler

I am a stay at home mama to two beautiful toddlers. Neither is old enough for pre-k yet but my son will be in the next year or two! (so insane!!!)

Toddlers learn through playing, so as a stay at home mom, we play a lot! I really focus on rotating toys and stimulating my kids through play; it’s awesome & I have so much fun doing it too!

But, it’s never too early to start thinking about academic learning for your kids. I don’t mean going out and buying workbooks for your two-year-old or sitting down next to a whiteboard and giving him a phonics lesson. But what I do mean is incorporating skills into their toys so they can get exposure to it. I have an elementary education degree so I’m aware of what my kids will be learning, so I can introduce certain things to them here and there through play.

Here’s what I mean…

1. Ask questions. While playing with your kid, use that opportunity to ask them questions like, “What color is this?,” “How many ____ do you have?,” or “Can you show me how this works?” Questions like these are open-ended enough to where they have to think about the answer and can’t just answer, “yep” or “nope.” Now, don’t do this every time you’re playing with your kid, but every now and then, get their brain moving a different direction by asking them questions like these.
2. Alphabet and Number Exposure. My son has started to be able to count a bit but he obviously has a ways to go. We have alphabet and number puzzles that I will occasionally put into rotation. Does my son know the alphabet? Nope! But, the more he sees the numbers and letters and we say them aloud, the more he will learn them. We also have alphabet and number magnets that go on their magnetic chalkboard in the playroom that helps them get exposed to these. We will write the kids’ names and point to the letters and sound it out for them. Do we make it feel like school & teaching? Not at all! Just incorporating exposure into their play is all! And my son thinks it’s so cool when we write his name! Make learning fun for them. 🙂
3. Modeling. Model for your kid the things you ask of them. For example, while you’re playing with cars, point to each car one at a time and count aloud how many cars you have. “I have 6 cars. 6 cars.” Kids are parrots and they will repeat what they hear. Just last week, my son was counting blocks and he pointed to one at a time and it went like this, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 8, 11… 11!” Did he count 100% correctly? No. But is that completely okay and is he still learning? Yes! He will also point to his shoes and go, “One shoe, two shoes!” before he puts them on! That’s a big step of learning and growth for a 2.5 year old. Kids need to hear us count for them to know how to do it.

None of these things is meant to feel like a burden or chore for you or your child. But, as parents, we can start to expose our kids to these concepts and ideas at a young age. That’s not just a teacher in a classroom’s job to teach. Remember, kids learn through play!

Tia Marie 🙂